Bogle suggested investors learn about diversification, saying the risk in any individual stock or bond is “staggering.”

In the meantime, Bogle said it is fine for the banks to repay the TARP money, but the TARP has not lived up to its purpose: repurchasing troubled assets.

“What the banks got was money to add to their capital,” he said. “People can disagree the extent to which they’ve actually used it to increase lending. But one thing’s clear — there aren’t repurchases of these troubled toxic assets.”